handy wrote:
The only potentially valid[*] reason I can think of why people "need" to speed is the one mentioned by Odin, which is "inappropriately low speed limits".
It's my opinion that if speed limits were set correctly, and by correctly I mean taking into account all of the parameters of safety, throughput, driver requirements, speeding would virtually disappear as an offence.
I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. Speed limits CANNOT be set correctly - or at least if they were set at such high thresholds that reasoanable men would never exceed them, then they would do no good.
Quote:
If it’s right in a Porsche; it’s wrong in a light van
If it’s right for a bend it’s wrong for the straight
If it’s right in the dry it’s wrong in the wet
If it’s right when the roads are busy it’s wrong when the roads are quiet
If it’s right when the road is wide it’s wrong when the road narrows
If it’s right for an experienced driver it’s wrong for a novice
If it’s right in clear conditions it’s wrong in fog
If it’s right when the road is clear, it’s wrong when hazards threaten
And so on, endlessly
So the problem is that even if we set the speed limit for 'good' conditions, it will still be way too low for 'ideal' conditions which are obviously present from time to time.
It's especially bad with national speed limits - applied equally to narrow busy bendy roads with novice drivers in crappy vehicles and to wide deserted straight roads with experienced drivers in high-spec vehicles.
The ONLY solution that I can propose is discretionary enforcement. Otherwise we're unavoidably telling some drivers to drive far too fast in poor conditions.
SafeSpeed wrote:
BottyBurp wrote:
handy wrote:
you trot this out too often, it's getting boring now.
Yeah - I find repeating the truth can be boring too...
However, the truth will out.

Yeah, after I replied to Handy I wished that I had asked him to specify the flaw. Of course there isn't a flaw, and Handy appears to have called it 'boring' because he cannot otherwise find fault with it.
the flaw is already pointed out. Limit and Target mean VERY different things.
So I've called it boring not because I can't find fault with it (because it's a very easy flaw to spot), but because you can't accept that a FACTUAL flaw, supported by learned (and peer reviewed) documents such as, oh, the Oxford English Dictionary might disagree with your opinion therefore it cannot be right, so you quote the same old response that does not actually make any sense unless you interchange the two words.
The issues surrounding 'limit' and 'target' aren't really even a side show.